To Be a Hero (Boku no Hero Academia x Reader)

❦ Thirty Eight

Recap: In the last chapter, after having the odd encounter with that Emboar, you watched the fascinating battle between Midoriya and Todoroki, who both gave it their all, ending it all with Todoroki's victory. Fast forward through all the second-round battles, Reader wins a wide victory against Ibara, facing the incredibly skilled-vine girl with Pikachu, who turned to his chonky gigantamax form as a crowd ending. The Sports festival is heading to its 3rd round, with only 5 runners, who is going to take the top? At the very least, time to find out who's the next person you'll be up against!

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There you stood, next to the classmates that have made it just as far as you have. Standing in a horizontal line with Midnight standing before you all, it sorts of feels like you're going to get honored an award already.

You stood between Todoroki and Iida ironically, frowning a little at being so close to the Todoroki which you were feeling a little bit awkward with after your horrendous ending of a conversation. You leaned a little closer to Iida from the uncomfortableness, both seemingly not noticing this motion as Midnight gestures to the 5 of you.

"Here are our top 5!" The cheers were, as usual, hype, with the crowd seemingly already excited to see how the battles will commence. Tokoyami stood beside Todoroki, while Bakugo was on the other side of the bird-faced boy, looking dreadfully horrible with an expression of a gremlin. Everyone looks decent, but Bakugo had to make it look out of order- he isn't the wild one of the group for nothing. You can't help but think he's like the kid in that one family photo everyone's trying to do together but hates photos so he makes the absolute weirdest faces only to come to dread it once they're older. The thought made you huff a breath of laughter, Pikachu curiously probing as Iida sent you a raised-brow look. Midnight begins her explanation. "Since our top players are currently in odd numbers, we decided to use a mini-game to decide who gets to pass..."

Midnight's face got serious, gleaming heavily. "And that would be through..." She drags dramatically, prevailing the wait to anticipate the competitors and the crowd. The 5 of you waited to see what was going to happen, Bakugo actually straightened a little, his sour expression still intact as Iida's breath slightly hitched from his anticipation. You saw Tokoyami shift in place, while Todoroki stayed effortlessly calm. You took a deep inhale.

The air was silent.

And just like that, Midnight's face switched happily, clutching tiny ropes in her hand like it was a trophy. "A random drawing-! Alright, who's up first!"

There was a small pause from everyone's baffled looks, well Todoroki never looks baffled cause he's Todoroki Shoto but you can tell when the term 'mini-game' came up, this wasn't what anyone was considering.

You're pretty sure you could hear the synchronize thoughts of all your classmates on the bleachers. 'So normal-!'

"WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS?!" Bakugo exploded.

"W-Well..." Present Mic's voice suddenly came by, probably to explain. He strangely sounded nervous, tugging his collar awkwardly. "Since we're pretty much out of time, we got no time for extravagant mini-games, so we decided to go for just a drawing..."

"Damn, budget's tight, eh?" Meowth teased, resting his head on his fist leisurely.

Since Bakugo's raging and Tokoyami was forced to stand next to this imploding blond, the bird could only try to earnestly try to calm him down, side-eyeing the gremlin with his arms crossed seriously. "It can't be helped, just do it."

"HUH?!"

"Bakugo-kun! Mind your manners!" Iida quickly butted in, leaning his body forward to look at the raged boy properly. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good excuse besides the time limit that we're doing a lucky draw. It's efficient!" Iida robotically snapped his arm forward, as Bakugo sneered.